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May 21, 2017--GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. – The Murray State University team of Zach Baker of Murray, Kentucky, and Micah Chessor of Paducah,Kentucky, won the YETI FLW College Fishing Central Conference tournament presented by Bass Pro Shops on Kentucky and Barkley lakes Saturday after weighing five bass totaling 19 pounds, 4 ounces. The victory earned the duo a $2,000 scholarship and an invitation to compete in the 2018 FLW College Fishing National Championship.

“This is an exciting win for our club – it’s nice to keep it in Kentucky,” said Baker, a senior majoring in Occupational Safety and Health. “It was a grind out there. We fought against some wind and waves, which definitely made things more tough. We just kept our heads down and fished.”

“We stayed on one ledge most of the day – a 70-yard stretch on the north-end of the lake at the mouth of Pisgah Bay,” said Chessor, a junior majoring in Wildlife Biology. “I found it in practice on Monday and the fish were stacked. I told Zach (Baker) that if we can get there first-thing Saturday morning, we’re going to stay there all day.”

“The ledge is basically a community hole,” said Baker. “The top of it is about 25 feet down and the bottom stretches to down about 30 feet. We just kept circling it and had a limit in the boat by 10:30 (a.m.), with our biggest fish coming in around 9:30.”

Baker said their biggest bass was caught on a Tennessee Shad-colored Keitech Impact FAT Swimbait with a 1-ounce head. He said their remaining four were brought in using a drop-shot rigged 4½-inch Morning Dawn-colored Roboworm Straight Tail Worm.

“We caught eight or nine keepers throughout the day,” said Chessor. “I caught some vertically out of the grass with the worm, and casted at them as well.”

“Patience was crucial for us,” said Baker. “We would hit a flurry of bites for around 45 minutes and then it would die off for around an hour. We just had to keep our focus and trust our instinct.”

This YETI FLW College Fishing Central Conference event at Kentucky and Barkley lakes was the second regular-season qualifying tournament of 2017 and was hosted by the Kentucky Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau. The next event for Central Conference anglers is their regular-season finale, scheduled for Oct. 7 on the Mississippi River in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.

YETI FLW College Fishing teams compete in three regular-season qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top ten teams from each division’s three regular-season tournaments, along with an additional qualifier for every 10 teams over 100 that compete, along with the top 20 teams from the annual YETI FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2018 FLW College Fishing National Championship.

College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a college fishing club that is recognized by their school.

May 1, 2017--RIDGELAND, Miss.--Severe storms may have caused the postponement of the final round of fishing Sunday, but nothing could stop Bassmaster Elite Series rookie Dustin Connell of Clanton, Ala., from claiming victory in the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Ross Barnett.

Connell caught a five-bass limit weighing 12 pounds, 15 ounces today, pushing his four-day total to 64-13 and holding off a late-charging veteran Kevin VanDam, who ended with 62-10.

Hoisting the coveted first-place trophy overhead — and pocketing the $100,000 that goes with it — has been Connell’s dream since childhood.

“This dream was becoming a reality back in my college days, when I fished the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Bracket Challenge against Matt and Jordan Lee of Cullman, Ala.,” Connell said. “They fished for Auburn University, and I fished on the University of Alabama team. Matt went to the Classic that year, and now the three of us compete in the Elite Series.”

Jordan Lee won the 2017 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods in March, and now with Connell’s Elite Series victory, the anglers who rose through the college ranks are proving their worth.

“I’m so thankful for the opportunity to get my start in big tournaments through the college fishing program,” he said. “It’s testament to Bassmaster’s seeding the future of professional bass fishing, and I’d say this to every college angler with a dream, ‘You can do this, too.’”

“I knew I needed to find something different and a long way from the crowds that would build on a smaller fishery like this,” the 26-year-old angler said. “When I arrived for official practice, I caught a 4- and a 5-pounder right away — and then I put my rods down.”

To save his bass for the competition days, Connell spent the rest of his practice viewing similar spots with his Lowrance sonar and GPS units.

“I caught probably 25 swim-jig fish on Thursday,” he said. His best five that day weighed 19-12. “But Friday was a turning point of this tournament. I didn’t have a fish before 10:30 because the Pearl River water rose and got muddier, slowing the pattern. I decided to go back and flip all of the same stuff, and I caught another 16 pounds in a short while. At that point, I knew I could win.”

“Today was definitely harder because of that weather system,” he said. “I really had to work for my fish, but thankfully I was able to catch two key fish this morning on a frog in a small pocket — locations that were critical for me throughout the week.”

Connell said winning an Elite Series event during his rookie season wasn’t expected, but something he’ll never forget.

“I can’t thank my family enough,” an elated Connell said. “They have supported this dream from the beginning, and to win one this early in my career gives me a lot of confidence that I made the right decision chasing after it.

“I love to fish. I fish every chance I get, and what I’m able to learn from fishing against the best in the world at these events is something I’m very grateful for.”

COLUMBIA, S.C. (April 2, 2015) – College teams from across the country will be heading to Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, April 16 – 18 for the 2015 FLW College Fishing National Championship presented by the Lowrance Insight Genesis College Cup. Fifty college bass fishing duos will be competing for a top award of a Ranger Z117 with a 90-horsepower outboard and entry into the 2015 Forrest Wood Cup, the world championship of bass fishing.

According to reigning Forrest Wood Cup champion Anthony Gagliardi, who won the championship on Lake Murray, it will be typical springtime fishing at its best. “This event will hit the lake right at the heart of the spawn and bass will be in all stages. We should see spawning, prespawn and postspawn bass all being caught.”

According to Gagliardi the best targets are going to be the pre and postspawn bass. Popular baits expected to be thrown will be spinnerbaits and swimbaits. He went on to say that depending on the weather, herring-spawn topwater baits could play a factor as well.

“It’s not hard to catch fish on Murray but the one thing teams are going to have to be careful of is getting sucked into a pattern that is producing fish, but not the right size fish,” Gagliardi continued. “It’s hard to move when you’re catching 2-pound fish cast after cast after cast. But those are not the fish that are going to win the tournament. Teams are going to have to move away from those areas to go and find the 4- to 5-pounders that they’ll need to make a difference.

“It’s going to be a fun tournament with a lot of fish caught. Teams are going to be competing for the same water so having multiple productive locations will be the difference between winning and losing.”

Gagliardi believes that teams are going to have to consistently bring in 18- to 20-pound sacks to become champion. Back-up plans are going to be clutch. He cautions that one spot will not carry them through the entire tournament to earn victory.

Anglers will take off from SCE&G North Recreation Area at Dreher Shoals Dam located at 2101 N. Lake Drive, in Columbia at 7 a.m. Weigh-in will be held adjacent to Carolina Stadium at Williams and Wheat Streets in Columbia beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday (or immediately following the end of the University of South Carolina baseball game). Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public.

College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university.

“It’s a great feeling to win this tournament,” said Flack, a junior majoring in Civil Engineering. “FLW has some really tough competition, even at the college level. There are guys out here that will eventually be full-time professional fisherman.”

After two days of practice, the duo focused on fishing the grass in the Fish Pond Drain area near the south end of the lake.

“We found a couple of isolated pockets we could get in,” said Hurst, a senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering. “The water was the right color and there was good grass, so we figured we would some find some prespawn fish.”

As temperatures rose throughout the day, the fish became more active which helped the team find their rhythm.

“We ended up catching most of our 12 fish on a White Trash-colored Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper,” said Hurst.

“We tried some other baits like a Strike King KVD jerkbait and Strike King spinnerbaits,” added Flack. “But the Skinny Dipper is what ended up working the best in the shallower five-foot depths we were targeting.”

“Our goal coming into this tournament was to qualify for the Conference Championship,” said Hurst. “We’re very excited to continue fishing.”

The top 15 teams that advanced to the Southeastern Conference Championship tournament on Pickwick Lake are:

This FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference tournament was hosted by the Bainbridge Convention & Visitors Bureau and was the first regular-season qualifying tournament in the Southeastern Conference. The next event for Southeastern Conference anglers is scheduled for May 2 at Lake Guntersville in Guntersville, Ala., and is hosted by the Marshall County Convention & Visitors Bureau.

FLW College Fishing teams compete in qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top fifteen teams from each regular-season tournament will qualify for one of five Conference Championship tournaments. The top ten teams from each of the five Conference Championship tournaments will advance to the 2016 FLW College Fishing National Championship.

College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university.

WHAT: The Bass Federation (TBF) and FLW, the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, have partnered to present the 2015 Florida State High School Fishing Championship. The tournament is open to any High School Fishing team in the entire state of Florida.

WHEN: Saturday, February 28, 2015

WHERE: Florida State High School Fishing Championship

Lake Toho

Big Toho Marina

69 Lakeview Drive

Kissimmee, Fla.

NOTES: The Florida state championship is a two-person (team) event for students in grades 9-12. Registration for anglers and their coach, who will provide the boat they compete in, is online at HighSchoolFishing.org. Takeoff will be at 6:50 a.m. and weigh-in will be held at Big Toho Marina, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. High School Fishing takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public. For more information about this event contact the TBF National Youth Director Mark Gintert at (580) 716-4251.

A preliminary list of schools participating will not be available as teams can still register up until the morning of the event.

The top 10 percent from each TBF/FLW state championship field will advance to a High School Fishing conference championship along with the top 3 teams from each of the six 2015 High School Fishing Opens that coincide with the 2015 Walmart FLW Tour. The top 10 percent of each conference championship field will then advance to the High School Fishing National Championship, coinciding with the TBF National Championship and an FLW Tour stop in the spring of 2016. The High School Fishing national champions will each receive a $5,000 college scholarship to the school of their choice.